We Love Your Suggestions

| Thu, January 4, 2007 | Training

Developer David Mitchell examines screenshotsof Logos workspaces submitted by users.

Logos customers make lots of great suggestions. Suggestions for books to digitize, features to add or tweak, website enhancements, you name it.

Most suggestions come via email (suggest@logos.com) and a newsgroup devoted to user suggestions. But we also collect feedback when we’re on the road, from published reviews, beta testers, and blog readers.

Not all suggestions receive a response and sometimes a suggestion is implemented months or years after it was first submitted. But we appreciate every one.

And sometimes we’re able to implement them right away, as you can see from the comments on this post at the Morris Proctor Tips & Tricks blog. A user named David Brokaw suggested a small feature he’d like to see addedto the Bibliography report. He explained,

I keep all my reference books open in the right side and save my work space as I am working on a long paper. What I need is the Bibliography option to have a “All Open Resources” option that will automaticly collect the info open at the time. Great idea???

I agreed that it was a great idea. Mr. Brokaw’s suggestion was routed to our development team, and a few days later the feature was added to the Libronix DLS 3.0c release candidate.

Now you can create a bibliography report from the resources you have open. Sure it’s a small feature, and we can’t always implement good suggestions this quickly. But please know that we valueyour input…andkeep those suggestions coming!

The Case for an E-Library

| Wed, January 3, 2007 | Misc.

The forthcoming issue of Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal includes an extensive (3,400+ word!) review of Scholar’s Library: Gold – Logos Bible Software 3. We received permission to post the review at Logos.com in advance of publication, so you can read the whole thing and even download the PDF.

Every reviewer puts a unique spin on his analysis. This reviewer, Andrew Naselli—who is at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School working on his second Ph.D.—does a great job of answering tough questions that a prospective buyer might ask before deciding to build an electronic library. These are questions Naselli struggled with before deciding to invest in Logos, so his responses are thoughtful and genuine.

  • Should I Buy E-Books From Only One or Multiple Software Companies?
  • Will New Technology Make Current E-Books Obsolete?
  • What if the Software Company Goes Out of Business?
  • Are E-Books Riskier Than Print Books?
  • How Is an E-Library Superior to a Print Library?
  • How does Scholar’s Library: Gold Compare to Other Products?

I’ll conclude with one of my favorite quotations from the review just to pique your interest. To the question of whether owning electronic books is “risky,” Naselli responds:

Some think that print books are safer investments than e-books. However, building any kind of library— whether print or electronic—involves some degree of risk. Print books are arguably a more risky investment than some e-books since print books are in danger of theft, natural disasters, and wear and tear from usage. A few years ago one pastor loaded up all of his earthly possessions, including his print library, into a moving truck, which was stolen the very next day. If that pastor had an e-library of Logos Bible Software, he would have received his entire e-library back for free.

Related posts:

Syntax Search Example: Hands, Heads and Feet as Subjects in the New Testament

| Tue, January 2, 2007 | Products, Training

Here’s a fun syntax search. For some reason I thought of searching the New Testament for places where body parts — hands, feet, heads, etc. — served as the subject of a clause.
You know, things like Mt 17.2:

And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.(Mt 17:2, ESV)

As seems to be my habit, I constructed the search and made a video of the process so I could share it with y’all. Enjoy!

Logos Bible Software as a “Dialogical Study Bible”

| Fri, December 29, 2006 | Misc.

One of theSBL sessions in November was entitled “Biblical Studies and Study Bibles” and looked at the issues surrounding study Bibles. You know, the printed Bibles that include study notes next to the biblical text and are often marketed to a particular audience, e.g., men, women, students, skaters, etc.

One of the professors involved in the session—Carol Newsom from the Candler School of Theology—wrote an article about study Bibles for the SBL Forum in advance of the society’s annual conference.

Newsom, who haswritten for and edited study Bibles,believes there’s a place for them:

The biblical text is not self interpreting, and there are all kinds of things that readers need help with. Who or what is “Hepzibah?” or “Mene, mene, tekel, u-parsin”?

But she worries about the trend toward niche marketing and the lack of varying perspectives in a highly targeted study Bible. Her solution?

If I were to envision the “best practices” that might evolve from the phenomenon of diverse study bibles, it would be something that our new internet technologies might make possible-a kind of high tech, inter-religious “miqra’ot gedalot.” I would love to assemble for my students a biblical text surrounded by (at least) four kinds of commentary — mainline protestant, evangelical protestant, Catholic, and Jewish. Or one could construct a similar dialogical volume constructed around North American, Eastern Orthodox, Latin American, African, and Asian Christian perspectives. A Jewish seminary might construct a quite different assemblage of traditional and contemporary Jewish annotations. As one can imagine, the possibilities are truly endless.

I read this and thought to myself, “She’s describing the Libronix DLS!”A few minutes later, I’d slapped together a workspace all set up to study the “Mene, mene, tekel, u-parsin” passage in Daniel 5.

If you click the thumbnail image above, you’ll see a “dialogical studydesk” that I’ve created using only books that are available today. Starting at the top left…the Bible version is Tanakh (it’s the one Newsom has her students use), with the NRSV on a tab as an alternate. Surrounding that are commentaries in the categories Newsom suggests: mainline protestant (Hermeneia), evangelical protestant (New American), and Catholic (Collegeville). Our “JPS Bible and Torah Commentary Collection” is still under development but I’d expect it to be released sometime in 2007.

At the far right side of the screen, I’ve got open a few select referencevolumes:the IVP Bible Background Commentary and Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, with A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature and Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament on tabs.

Various other titles could be substituted for the ones I chose here. (See, for example,our commentary guideand list of Bible dictionaries.)

And, of course, a workspace like this includes all the little conveniences you’ve come to expect from Logos Bible Software: resources that scroll together, dynamic linking to instantly and effortlessly look up an unfamiliarword in any language, Bible reference expansion upon hover, automatic footnoting, and so on.

But I think you get the point…

“Professor Newsom, the futureis now!”

Building Our Team

| Thu, December 28, 2006 | Misc.

It is always interesting to read about how other people are applying information technology to Bible study.

SemanticBible.org is the home of a variety of interesting projects, and earlier this year it occurred to me that whoever was behind it must be the kind of person who is interested in many of the same things we are.

And he is.

I am very happy that Sean Boisen has accepted our invitation to join Logos Bible Software as a Senior Information Architect, and I am looking forward to working with him on increasingly powerful (and interesting!) ways of using technology to facilitate Bible study.

You may find Sean’s blog post interesting, and poking around SemanticBible.org is always thought-provoking.

Know Thy Books

| Wed, December 27, 2006 | Products, Training

Owning a large digital library is great when you can consult precisely the book you need at the moment you need it. Buta vast digital holdingcan present challenges when deciding whether to buy a new collection, such as the 2006 Christmas Special, Library Builder: Volumes 1-3 (available through December 31).

At present, there is no magical tool that can analyze your licenses, compare them against the product you’re thinking of buying, then spit out a report showing you duplicated books, new books, books you’d like, books you’ll never use,and books you think you’ll never use until late on a certain desperate Saturday night in February 2008.

But a couple of featuresin the Libronix DLS can come in handy when evaluating a purchase, or simply getting to know your books.

(I apologize if this seems obvious to our seasoned users but I recently came across two users in one day who were not aware of this information and realized that I take it for granted.)

Calling Marian…the Librarian

Everyone probably knows about My Library since there’s a big button for it right in the main toolbar. So I’ll just do a quick refresher…

My Library is the card catalog of Libronix—the library-ish way to see what digital books you own. It’s built on library standards and the “metadata” about each book—stuff like subject classifications—come from the Library of Congress. Yeah, the whole “library” thing is more than a metaphor with us.

In My Library, you can type in the title of a book to find specific volume, or see what you have from a particular author like A.W. Pink or Oswald Chambers.Viewing your books by subject can help you get a handle on the depth of your libraryin a subject like creeds, for example.

Just the List, Ma’am

If list-making,rather than browsing, is whatyou’re after…the Bibliography report is the tool to use. ClickTools | Library Management | Bibliography, then customize the report to show the contents of various collections you may have built or all the resources you own. You can also customize the displayto suit thetask at hand.

“Catalog style with covers” generates the colorful display shown below, which is great for getting to know your books. If you’re making a standard bibliography, you may choose something more utilitarian like “APA Style (4th ed.)”.

For this screenshot, I chose to run the bibliography report on the “Biblical Counseling Library” collection: a user-defined collection I created earlier. User-defined means the list of books in this collection can be completely arbitrary. Themetadata shown in the report comes from the Library of Congress, except for the brief descriptions which our book designers edit together from thebook jacket or preface.

Follow the Money Trail

When you want to view the Libronix-basedproducts you’ve purchased and activated, My Libraryis no help and Bibliography is only helpful if you’ve manually created collections. What you need is the Account Summary, a new tool in Logos Bible Software 3.

(OK, you really must at least download the free update if you haven’t already!)

Account Summary gives you a handle on the product collections in your digital library, as opposed to the individual books.

To open Account Summary, click Tools | Library Management | Account Summary and you’ll see something like this, but with fewer 0s.

Here is a record of the licenses for all the products or collections unlocked on this system. A product like Scholar’s Library will be in this list. At the bottom of the report is a list of the books and resources you have unlocked individually, such as Scripture Alphabet of Animals.

Tip: If you suspect that something you own is missing from this list…click Tools | Library Management | Synchronize Licenses (available only in Logos 3) to make sure you’re utterly up to date.

So What Have We Learned Today?

Account Summary can be the most useful tool when trying todecide whether to purchase a product such as The Complete Theological Journal Library Bundle, for example. You may recall having purchased a couple of journals discs in the past, but can’t remember which ones exactly.

After reading this post you now know that resources like journals don’t show up as productcollectionsin My Library; they show up as individual journals. But you also know that Account Summary is the place to turn for a list of the products you’ve activated, which makes comparison easier.

On the other hand, My Library is the ideal tool for locating an individual resource or browing books by subject. And the Bibliography tool can generate either a standard bibliography or a more detail-rich list with bookcovers and descriptions.

Perhaps a corollary of the dictum “Know Thy Books” is “Know Thy Book-Knowing Tools.”

(Note: Before anyone writes in to ask…if you see an item in your account summary that simply reads “Theological Journal Library” that corresponds to what we now call “Theological Journal Library Volumes 1-5” to distinguish it from the journal collectionsthat came after.)

For further reading see “Getting to Know Your Books,” a web article written by Rick Brannan that offers some additional suggestions for familiarizing yourself with the contents of your digital library.

Greek Syntax: Components and Head Terms

| Tue, December 26, 2006 | Products, Training

I received an email from one of y’all with some further questions about word groups, head terms, clausal hierarchy and syntax searching.

Rather than writing something, it was easier to make a video to point out some of the different ways one can structure a syntax search — particularly if you’ve wondered what “Must be an immediate child of parent” does.

I’ll warn you that I rambled a bit, the video is almost 13 minutes. Hopefully the information therein is usable.

Christmas Cheer and Festivities

| Fri, December 22, 2006 | Misc.
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All work and no play makes for a gloomy office…especially around Christmas. So here are some highlights of our play during the past few weeks.

This year’s office decorating contest was a battle of the grinches with two departments independently hitting upon a “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” theme.

The text developers ultimately triumphed (they not only decorated but also put on a performance for the judges, complete with a 6 or 8 member choir).Andthere was a strong showing from a number of other departments and individuals as well. (See more photos...)

Of course there were some scrooges who didn’t decorate at all.

The annual bake-off was a sweet success, with nearly a dozen entries to spoil our collective appetite for lunch. For some of us, the baked treatswere lunch.

First place went to Ryan Husser,Logos book designer, with his Magic Cookie Bars. Second and third place went to Kelsey Sebens’ peanut butter bars and James VanNoord’s “O Little Mint of Bellingham” bars, respectively. Two of the recipes are below.

The Logos Christmas Party was a great chance to fellowship with one another, meet spouses and “significant others”, and even meet some co-workers for the first time.

Bob told us the story of the first ever company Christmas party, held in a stairwell at the Oak Harbor office,with a menu that included Oscar Meyer cold cut and Wonder Bread sandwiches. It was pretty amazing to look around atthe largest Logos Christmas party to dateand be thankful for the ways God has blessed this company.

We hope you have a merry Christmas and look forward to serving you in the New Year!

Magic Cookies Bars

Ingredients: 1 stick (½ cup) butter 1 ½ cup crushed graham crackers (sandwiching between two pieces of waxed paper works best for me) 1 can sweetened condensed milk 1 cup (6 oz) chocolate chips 1 cup (6 oz) butterscotch chips 1 1/3 cup coconut flakes 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions: Preheat oven to 350° Melt butter in 13 x 9 inch pan Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs onto butter, shake pan gently to disperse evenly Drizzle sweetened condensed milk evenly over butter/graham cracker crumbs Sprinkle chocolate chips, then butterscotch chips, then coconut, then walnuts (if desired) over sweetened condensed milk Bake for 25 minutes Let cool and cut into pieces

O Little Mint of Bellingham(Creamy Mint Bars )

Recipe from Genny Gerrits; Holland, MI; April 1996Grease 9×13 pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Base/Crust:1 Chocolate Mint Pillsbury Cake mixor 1 double chocolate pudding cake mix plus 1 teaspoon mint extract 1/3 cup softened margarine1 egg1/4 cup waterCombine all ingredients and mix at low speed. Press into greased pan and bake for 10 minutes in preheated oven. Allow to cool.

Filling:1 envelope unflavored Knox gelatin. Sprinkle on 1/4 cup cold water and heat according to package directions to dissolve gelatin. 4 cups powdered sugar, divided1/2 cup margarine1/2 cup Crisco or butter flavored shortening1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract2 to 5 drops green food coloringAfter gelatin is dissolved, allow to cool. Mix soft gelatin with 2 cups of powdered sugar, margarine, shortening, flavoring and coloring. Beat one minute at medium speed or until creamy. Blend in balance of sugar. Spread over crust.

Frosting:6 oz milk chocolate chips3 T shorteningMelt chips and shortening and drizzle over filling. Refrigerate.

Notes:– The base/crust is very thick and sticky. It will probably take longer than 10 minutes to be done.– I doubled this recipe for the bake-off and used a 18×13 half sheet pan– I substituted butter one-for-one in place of margarine.

Logos Culinary Secrets Revealed!

| Thu, December 21, 2006 | Misc.

As Bob has mentioned and as regular blog readers know, from time to time we love to do some cookin’ here at Logos.


Bradley Grainger preparing some condimentsfor his 2006 Curry Cook-off entry

When we have cookoffs, we usually post winning recipes on this blog.

If you’re interested in some of the winners, try searching the blog using the search box on the sidebar for the word recipe. Or just click this link.

Who knows, you could find something you’d like to make for dinner next week!

Syntax Searching and Epistolary Form Criticism: Charge Form

| Wed, December 20, 2006 | Products, Training

Read the first five posts in this series: Intro | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4.
2Ti 4.1 offers an example of the Charge Form.


Charge Form in 2Ti 4.1

The discussion of this form is very much preliminary because Smith’s recent book, Timothy’s Task, Paul’s Prospect is the first to propose this form. If Smith is right, it could affect how one interprets the whole book of Second Timothy. One should at least weigh this when working through the book of Second Timothy.

Description of Form
Smith defines the form as follows:

My research has identified four basic elements which comprise the charge: the Charge Verb, Person/s Charged, Authority Phrase, and Content of the Charge. A fifth element sometimes present in a charge is the Implications of the Charge, though this is not a necessary component.[1]

Smith provides more explanation of each of these elements:

  • The Charge Verb: Could be διαμαρτύρομαι, παραγγέλλω, μαρτύρομαι, ἐνορκίζω, εχορκίζω, ὁρκίζω, κελεύω, παρακαλέω, ἐντέλλομαι.[2] Smith notes these are to be active apart from deponents, which will occur in the middle.[3]
  • The Person Charged: A second person singular or plural, though third person singular or plural are possible. The case of the noun is either accusative or dative. This item is not always a part of the charge, sometimes it may be implied from context.[4]
  • The Authority Phrase: Typically following the verb, it may or may not use a preposition. When no preposition is present, the phrase uses the accusative case.[5]
  • The Content of the Charge: Typically in a ἵνα clause and a verb second or third person subjunctive, though it may be an infinitival clause or perhaps even a series of imperatives.

Because the charge verb and authority phrase are always present, those will be used as the basis of the query.

The Form in OpenText.org SAGNT
Smith reports the following instances of the charge form: Mt 26.63; Mk 5.7; Ac 16.18; Ro 12.1-2; 15.30-32; 1Co 1.10; Eph 4.17; 1Th 4.1; 5.27; 2Th 3.6; 2Th 3.12; 1Ti 5.21; 1Ti 6.13-14; 2Ti 4.1-8.[6] The query follows:


Charge Form

  • A primary clause with a first-person indicative charge verb as predicator. A second clause component, either an adjunct or a complement contains:
    • “supernatural being or power” (Louw-Nida domain 12) as head term, or
    • οικτιρμος, οικτιρμων or ονομα as the head term

This query, when run, returns 29 instances. Some are duplications based on the “OR” criteria in the word group of the second clause component.

  • Instances from Smith located by the query: Mt 26.63; Mk 5.7; Ac 16.18; 15.30-32; 1Co 1.10; Eph 4.17; 1Th 4.1; 5.27; 2Th 3.6; 2Th 3.12; 1Ti 5.21; 1Ti 6.13-14; 2Ti 4.1-8
  • Extras located by the query: Jn 14.16; 16.26; Ac 19.13.
  • Instances from Smith missed by the query: Ro 12.1-2. This is due to a discrepancy in the annotation of Ro 12.1, where the prepositional phrase that functions as the authority phrase is annotated as modifying the following infinitive verb instead of the preceding indicative verb (the charge verb).

Bibliography

Smith, Craig A. Timothy’s Task, Paul’s Prospect: A New Reading of 2 Timothy (Sheffield: The Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2006).

Notes
[1] Smith, p. 27.
[2] Smith, p. 27, 29.
[3] Smith, p. 29.
[4] Smith, p. 30.
[5] Smith, p. 30
[6] Smith, p. 231-233